[Gen Con 04] The Insane Game - Updated 8/15/03!

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

It will be up to the GM's (we have some of the best in the world to draw from here) to keep the groups in line. Encourage roleplay, but not allow hour long political discussions in character that derail the game.

To me that just screams "Time Limit" or something close. Have something that HAS to be done in a certain amount of time. To use a previous example, the volcano will errupt at "X" and let the player's no it. It will keep things tense, and interesting.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I like the war idea. Different groups could have different goals: some could lead armies, others could be engaged in espionage or counter-espionage, others could chase after the powerful artifact that could turn the tide of the war.

I really like this idea. Mix this with Teflon Billy's timeline ideas and it sounds great.

Edit. Hadnt read all of the second page yet

 

[Teflon Billy]

I don't really think we would prove anything just by having a 60 person continuous combat scene. There really isn't any challenge in that, you just put people on different parts of the battlescene and keep hacking...

I would find it intolerable to DM this, in much the same way that I think an "all RP" game would be useless.

I would want to see both, and I don't mean long lengthy introspection about the meaning of life, but rather RP'd parlaying, Diplomacy, threats etc.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Howdy. I'm a regular at Mortality but a newb here at EnWorld. My husband and I are D&Ders but we currently live in Seoul, so GenCon 2003 was out for us. We're set to move to Hawaii next month and are probably going to take vacation summer of 2004; his family lives 30 minutes from Indy so we're going to coincide our trip home with GenCon 2004. It'll be our first GenCon. I make a rotten DM but I'm a good player and would love to play in an EnWorld group game. Count me, actually probably me and spouse, in on the fun!

 

[Mercule]

It's much cooler to do something that's never been done (to our knowledge) and to prove the strength of our geek-fu to the whole world.

"Geek-fu". Nice. Consider it yoinked.

As to characters - anyone thought of handing out pre-genned characters? Using some of the generator tools it would be relatively simple to hand out skeletal characters and let people fill in the blanks. Might not sit well with the people who want to do their own concepts, but it may help get things moving while keeping things sane. *shrug* It might not be worth it though if it takes the fun out of it.

I'm usually on the deep-immersion/serious RP train, but I'm with you here. 150 people each doing their own soliloque is absurd. Straightforward dungeon crawl should be the mainstay of the adventure.

 

[Mercule]

I don't really think we would prove anything just by having a 60 person continuous combat scene. There really isn't any challenge in that, you just put people on different parts of the battlescene and keep hacking.

I don't _think_ this is what he was saying. More just that we shouldn't have a game of courtly intrigue at the king's dinner table.

Hmm... maybe different DMs feel they have strengths that we could exploit. Some may be really good at a running dungeon seige. Others might be good at keeping up the pace in a diplomatic scene. Still others might be great at dealing with stealthy PCs.

We definitely would want to have pregenerated characters with a fiat of starting info. I'd hate to see one group derailed by a Hennet clone shopping for masterwork buckles.

 

[Storminator]

Let me step in and say the "scene" idea of TBs is spot on.

And how's this for an ENWorld flashback tie in: Bang out Clay's "Around the World Race" adventure? Each leg of the race is a scene, half a dozen scenes, set events (read: time limits) around the world you have to be at...

Thinking it has it all...

PS

 

[Cedric]

I don't _think_ this is what he was saying. More just that we shouldn't have a game of courtly intrigue at the king's dinner table.

I probably overstated my case a bit, I wasn't intending to misrepresent was he was saying. I just wanted to firmly derail the thoughts of turning this into a long smackdown session.

I have long contended that ENWorld represents many of the best and brightest in D&D, as well as the whole of the Pen and Paper RPG world.

If this is going to be an event defined by ENWorld then it needs to be an event worthy of ENWorld.

A mix of intrigue, combat, mystery, politics and just good ole fashion roleplaying is well within our grasp with good GM's, good writing and a solid idea.

We are coming out with some good ideas now. Ultimately though, we need to put 2-3 people in "charge" of this event. Have those people decide within the next month or two what the basis of the event will be.

Then get started on writing the "script" for the event (I use that term loosely, you can't script something this big). Get the GM's involved and make sure that when it comes time to run this...it gets run right.

Probably the best thing for character creation would be core rulebooks only, character submission deadline of maybe July 1st. All characters and players have to be pre-registered for this event through whoever from the boards here is running it (no last minute sign-ups at the Con, that's a nightmare).

Characters will be collected and saved for distribution at GenCon. Between July 1st and GenCon will be the unenviable task of breaking these characters into groups of the necessary size (balanced for size and play balance - ie, no 5 wizard groups).

Obviously it doesn't have to happen this way...but I've run events on this scale before. If you spread out your preparation over the years time. Set reasonable but firm deadlines. Get others involved. And have everything ready to go well before hand. You'll have a much more successful event.

On a side note, though they may elect to not have this honor. I would like to see Teflon Billy and P-kitty be two of the 2-3 people who are in charge of this event.

This may not mesh with their schedule though...so I'm not trying to rope them into something.

Cedric

 

[Teflon Billy]

...This may not mesh with their schedule though...so I'm not trying to rope them into something.

Speaking for myself, I don;t really go to Gen Con with a "Schedule", I've found that trying to sign up for anything=heartbreak, so i just "wing it".

 

[Larry Fitz]

I have some thoughts on this...

Picture a setup where each person runs through three sessions. First session is a typical dungeon crawl with 5 other people (or so, possibly as many as 8). Second session is a city adventure that deals with the aftermath of the dungeon crawl and involves groups of 6-8 people mixed and matched from the original groups, third session is oplayed on several large tables and is a massive combat scenario that deals with the conflicts set in motion during the first two sessions. Items gotten by various people (or not) duringhe first two sessions will affect gameplay in the third session, also, the combatants are not "us vs. the orcs" it's "The Corsairs of Felix vs William's Non-adherents!' That is EnWorld forces vs EnWorld forces, with alliances being forged and possibly broken during the first two sessions. This could be a multiple day EnWorlder event, say, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the winners announced (and feted) at the Ennies!

The physical layout is simple; the first session occurs at regular tabletops. The beginning of the second session is a single room where characters interact at tables marked as specific locations in the city before grouping up to start tabletopping, the final session invloves a massive collection of terrain tables, each table is overseen by a single judge, combat that crosses between tables is overseen by the judges whose tables are involved. For the first two sessions PC's must complete their scenarios in the normal slot time, for the final scenario, rounds of combat are co-ordinated for all of the tables.

This could work, it could be massive and massively fun, and I'm up for working on it. Great idea Ashy...